The interesting thing about living in an ideologically ‘post-racial’ society – which is nevertheless dependent to the extreme on structures and practices of racism and racial violence – is that talking about racism is equivalent to perpetuating it.

The term Creative Industries is also indebted to a particular aesthetic idea of what counts as art. If Foley wants to be minister for that department, perhaps we need a counter position in a Ministry of Uncreative Industries.

Curtis’s verdict on foreign military intervention in Afghanistan adheres to one of the few received narratives he is happy to go along with, namely that such interventions, dating back to the first Anglo-Afghan war (1839-42), inevitably end in bloody defeat for the occupiers.

The Left in this country can learn from the example of Syriza’s rise and the difficulties it has encountered. Syriza did not come to power because of a few powerful individuals or a charismatic leader. They came to power because disparate groups within the Left in Greece were able to set aside their differences and organise together.

The Syriza government of Greece has submitted to the EU a draft agreement for economic management, as part of securing continued four-month funding to pay foreign debts coming due, and thus avoid a default.